132 NINETEENTH CENTURY. PT. III. 



parts; all the differences are only a complication and 

 modification of the same organs/ 



This similarity of structure, or homology as it is called, 

 which runs through all animals, was thus first clearly stated 

 by St.-Hilaire, and it has now been most carefully worked 

 out and confirmed by our living anatomists. Yet Cuvier op- 

 posed it to the last, for his mind was full, as we shall see 

 presently, of another idea which is equally true ; namely, how 

 perfectly each part of an animal is made to fit all the other 

 parts of his body ; and it seemed to him impossible that this 

 could be, unless each part was created expressly for the work 

 it had to do. 



The discussion between the two friends became so 

 animated that all Europe was excited by it. It is said that 

 Goethe, then an old man of eighty-one, meeting a friend, 

 exclaimed, 'Well, what do you think of this great event ? the 

 volcano has burst forth, all is in flames.' His friend thought 

 he spoke of the French Revolution of July 1830, which had 

 just occurred, and he answered accordingly. ' You do not 

 understand me,' said Goethe, ' I speak of the discussion be- 

 tween Cuvier and St.-Hilaire : the matter is of the highest 

 importance. The method of looking at nature which St.- 

 Hilaire has introduced can never now be lost sight of again.' 

 And he was right, for the doctrine of homology, as taught 

 by St.-Hilaire, is one of the strongest arguments for the 

 theory of the development of living beings, now held by all 

 the most able naturalists, and of which we shall speak in 

 Chapter XLI. 



Cuvier proves that the Parts of an Animal agree so 

 exactly that, from seeing one Fragment, the Whole can 

 be known. We have seen that Cuvier did not agree with 

 many of the views of Lamarck and St.-Hilaire. We must 

 now consider what work he did himself; for though all the 



